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A
recent article in a prominent LA newspaper
interviewed an LA psychic who does spirit
clearings for those ghosts that just don't
want to leave by themselves. For those
of us who can't see ghosts ourselves but
wish we could. Happy Hauntings!
FA: The
photos have a wonderfully dated, 19th century
quality.....Explain the imagery you
are using.
CK: The
first form of photography that was popular
available from the 1840s through the 1850s
was the daguerreotype (dags). The image
is a highly polished copper plate with a mirror-like
finish. It created a tremendous amount
of depth astonishing for its time. It
was amazing that someone's likeness could
be captured so perfectly in all it's glorious
detail, a miracle painted with light. These
portraits were put into beautiful little cases
and were treasured objects in families' homes.
FA:
"Ghost Stories" is
a recent body of your work. Explain
the process in finding these images.
CK: These
photographs are comprised of original images
and dags. I allow the 2 images to reflect
on to one another. For many years,
I have been fascinated with places that time
has not changed. I have photographed
at many living history museums, restored
historic homes, and places that time has
not touched, many of them haunted. I
have been collecting dags for a couple of
years. I love to use this found imagery
to tell these stories of untouched history
and past voices. Because my collection
is limited, I have had the priviledge of
having access to other people's collections
as source material. Often times, these
collectors have so many images, that it is
a process of re-discovery for them to have
me come over and work with their daguerreotypes
instead of having them be forgotten in a
drawer.
FA: How
did you come to this process of combining
images?
CK: One
night I was looking at a daguerreotype of
a young mother and baby by the light of a
kerosene lamp. The case for this dag
had a white satin, slightly swagged lining
on the inside of the cover. The
satin reflected on the image, the satin impressed
upon my mind the image of the father's
eye sadly gazing upon his far away wife and
child. It was as if his eye had gazed
so much upon this image with intensity of
longing, that the ghost of his desire was
caught in this mirror of time. It was
at this moment that I conceived of sharing
these "ghosts" with others
by photographing reflections in daguerreotypes. FA: What
is the process?
CK: I
use a macro 60 mm lens on my Nikon 35mm camera. I
lean the daguerreotype and the photo so it
is reflecting at various angles with each
other. I
set up a strobe head which pumps out a lot
of light, so that I can shoot at f32 which
gives me depth of field, so that the original
image, as well as the reflection is sharp. Small
movements change the image created quite
a lot. I am working on a very small
scale......most dags are no larger than 3"x
5", and are sometimes even smaller than
that. The photographs that I reflect
in the dags are normal 4x6 prints.
FA: Do
you know where this body of work is headed?
CK: The
fascinating thing is that I don't really
know where this body of work is going. Once
they are out in the world for people to see,
they find their own ghost stories. There
are always things I do not see, things that
surprise me. The other day, someone
was looking at a ghost story "House
Man", and saw the ghost of a little
girl in a window. She was quite distinctly
holding her hand up to her face, with a checkered
dress with a lace collar, she was definitely
there, and I had never noticed her before. There
is magic and mystery in these images. Most
of the people in these photos have been closed
and forgotten in their cases for over 150
years. There is the sense that they
are glad to be seen. Their expressions
change from how they looked in the original
dag.
FA: What
gives this work such play and life?
CK: These
mirrored plates are the very ones that were
in the camera 150 years ago. They carry
energetic wave lengths of their beings on
the photographic plate. Something is
happening that is beyond the ordinary sense
of what can be scientifically explained. For
instance, in "The Whistler" you
can definitely see that this young man is
pursing his lips together in the fashion
one would if one were whistling. In
the original dag, his lips are absolutely
straight. I feel like he is whistling
his way out of the tomb. I never know
what story they want to tell me. I
instinctively put together images that tell
a tale, but I feel more like a receiver than
a creator.
FA: Talk
more about receiving information form these
dags?
CK: The
story I perceive may be an entirely different
narrative from the one that the viewer has. For
this reason, I do not assign a specific story
to any image, even though I do have them
in my own head. There is a thrust behind
this work of who this person was, still projecting
their life force through the mirror of memory,
combined with the photographs of haunted
places reflected in them that have their
own charged atmosphere. This combination
creates a whirlpool of energy that is powerful
and out of my hands, the inexplicable occurs. In
"New Dog" a mother dog snoozes while her
pup nestles next to her in a tarpaulin (oilskin)
sailor's hat. In this one, I reflected
a photo I had taken in a basement kitchen
of an 18th century home in the East End
of London. A bowl rests on the sink,
for some reason, it appears for all the world
like it is in between the mother dog and
her puppy. The two different worlds
mesh and collide, shifting dimensions. The
images are printed twice, on 2 layers of
fabric that hang about 5 inches apart......the
front layer is transparent, which creates
a three dimensional sensation of a ghost
hovering, shimmering in front of the viewer. FA: How
does the viewer see your work?
CK: Once
when I was crouched underneath a piece hanging
at Photo L.A., preparing a label, a gaggle
of onlookers gathered around to "experience"
the ghost. I
hear, "Whoa that is REALLY f----ed UP!" I have never been
so complimented. Truly, it is a singular experience, the people seem to
be breathing and very much alive. Their eyes follow you around the room, haunting
you.
FA: Is
there something about yourself that longs
for the past?
CK: Yes,
very much so. The past is what drives
me to take photographs in the first place. I desparately
want to save moments that are so evanescent,
so fleeting. I seek out places and
people that have not been changed by time. Mostly
I am fascinated by the late 18th and the
19th centuries. Who can explain why
any era is attractive to them, but I surround
myself with delicious antiquarian books that
I soak in and an ever increasing collection
of mid-19th century photographs. With
my dog, Sachi, I go to historical encampments.
Dressed in period clothes, we live in a canvas
tent, and cook over a fire. There is no
magic to match that experience under the
stars.
Kunin's
shows in Los Angeles. Her work makes numerous
appearances and her ability to capture
spiritual beings brings beauty and light
to her photography of this plane and the
others.
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